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Tag: factory workers

  • Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 poultry plant workers | CNN Business

    Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 poultry plant workers | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 workers as it closes two poultry plants in an effort to boost profits.

    The company will shutter a chicken processing plant in Glen Allen, Virginia that employs 692 people, as well as one in Van Buren, Arkansas, with 969 employees, on May 12.

    The closure decision “[reflects] our broader strategy to strengthen our poultry business by optimizing operations and utilizing the full available capacity at each plant,” a Tyson Foods

    (TSN)     spokesperson told CNN in an emailTuesday. The scale of the facilities as well as an “inability to economically improve operations has led to the difficult decision to close the facilities,” according to the spokesperson.

    Tyson had about 124,000 US employees as of October.

    Several companies have been laying off workers amid still-high inflation and fears of a recession, many of those workers in the tech sector. In this case, Tyson is pointing to weakness in its poultry operations.

    Tyson, a major meat and poultry processor, mentioned problems in its chicken business during a February analyst call discussing the company’s most recent quarterly results.

    In the three months ending on December 31, “demand didn’t appear in the parts of the market where we had expected,” Tyson CEO Donnie King said on the call. “As a result, we had to move things around.” That led to higher costs and lower prices, he added.

    “As we think about moving forward, efficiency in our operations in our company will be the focal point for us,” he said.

    The company has been shaking up that part of the business amid broader turnover.

    Tyson announced Wes Morris as the new head of its poultry business in January. Morris, a long-time employee of the company, left Tyson in 2017 and had since consulted for its poultry business. He replaced David Bray, the previous poultry president, who had just stepped into that role in 2021 -— the same year that Tyson reported its chicken volumes were low because of breeding issues.

    Also in 2021, King became CEO, replacing the previous chief executive Dean Banks, who had been at the helm for under a year. Tyson also tapped a new head of its fresh meats division in December.

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  • iPhone factory workers in China offered bonuses to return to work | CNN Business

    iPhone factory workers in China offered bonuses to return to work | CNN Business

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    New Delhi
    CNN Business
     — 

    One of Apple’s largest suppliers is trying to strike a delicate balance in China.

    Foxconn

    (HNHPF)     has to comply with some of the harshest Covid rules in the world while ensuring that Apple’s

    (AAPL)     shipments are not severely disrupted just before the key holiday season begins.

    The Taiwanese company, which has been racing to control a Covid outbreak at its vast campus in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou, has started recruiting for the facility once again and is offering bonuses for staff who had recently left, according to a statement posted on one of the company’s WeChat accounts.

    Foxconn’s statement came just a day after Apple said it expects iPhone 14 shipments to be hit by China’s Covid curbs, which have “significantly reduced capacity” at the Zhengzhou facility, the world’s biggest iPhone factory.

    “The epidemic has disrupted our work and life, but… the company has achieved milestone results in the current epidemic prevention measures,” Foxconn said on its Zhengzhou recruitment WeChat account on Monday.

    “The production and living order of the park has been restored to normal gradually,” the statement added.

    Anxious workers had reportedly fled the locked-down facility. Videos of many people leaving Zhengzhou on foot have gone viral on Chinese social media in recent days. Foxconn is now stepping up measures to get its staff back.

    If they return, staff who left between October 10 and November 5 will receive a one-off bonus of 500 yuan ($69), according to the company. New workers will be offered a salary of 30 yuan ($4) per hour, according to the post.

    Last Wednesday, Chinese authorities imposed a seven-day lockdown on the manufacturing zone that houses the Foxconn plant.

    Workers will be able to start their work as soon as the “district-level lockdown is lifted,” Foxconn said in the WeChat post, at which point employees will be collected and driven to the factory for a closed-loop system — where staff will work and live on site.

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  • Workers flee China’s biggest iPhone factory over Covid outbreak | CNN Business

    Workers flee China’s biggest iPhone factory over Covid outbreak | CNN Business

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    New Delhi
    CNN Business
     — 

    Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers, is wrestling with major disruption at its biggest iPhone assembly factory in China, as anxious workers reportedly flee the locked-down facility, according to social media videos.

    The Taiwanese company is racing to control a Covid outbreak at its campus in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou.

    The exodus is putting a tremendous strain on Foxconn just before the key holiday shopping season begins and highlights how the country’s stringent zero-Covid policy is hurting international business.

    “[We] fully understand your eagerness to go back home,” Foxconn told its employees over the weekend, according to a post on Zhengzhou government’s official WeChat account.

    “For employees who voluntarily stay in the company’s factory area, the port government and the company will jointly ensure everyone’s…health and safety,” it added.

    Analysts said the chaos at Zhengzhou could jeopardize Apple and Foxconn’s output in the coming weeks. Ivan Lam, senior research analyst at Counterpoint, estimated that between 10% and 30% of iPhone 14 production could be affected in the near term if the situation did not stabilize.

    The Zhengzhou campus is the world’s biggest iPhone factory and typically accounts for as much as 85% of iPhone assembly capacity, according to Lam’s estimates.

    A Foxconn spokesperson told Chinese state media that the company is trying to boost production at other sites.

    “At present, because now is the peak production season… [there is] a large demand for workers,” a Foxconn spokesperson told Henan Daily on Monday, adding that the company was “also coordinating back-up production capacity at other sites.”

    Foxconn and Apple did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

    Shares in Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, fell 2.6% on Tuesday.

    Videos of many people leaving Zhengzhou on foot have gone viral on Chinese social media in recent days. The city, which has a population of more than 12 million, imposed sweeping lockdown measures earlier last month after identifying dozens of Covid-19 cases.

    State media has said that many Foxconn workers are among those walking miles to escape the city. Calling it a “helpless move for some employees,” a Foxconn manager told media outlet Yicai that workers are panicking over the spread of the virus at the factory and lack of access to official information.

    Foxconn said it was organizing vehicles for employees wishing to return home, according to a post on Zhengzhou government’s official WeChat account over the weekend.

    The company has also quadrupled daily bonuses for workers at the plant this month, it said in a post on its official WeChat account on Tuesday.

    While these disruptions will impact iPhone production in the near term, analysts say it may not dent Apple’s iPhone shipments in the key holiday season.

    “I think in one to two weeks, things will get back to normal, given the current status,” Lam said.

    “They still have a lot of alternative production sites,” he said, adding that Foxconn had already begun shifting production to other facilities in China, such as in the southern province of Guangdong. “Things are under control now.”

    And, as Beijing shows few signs of moving away from its rigid Covid policies, Apple has started to boost production in other countries, including India, to reduce its dependence on China.

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